In March 1953, Steve Chizen was putting the final touches on the Cedar V Theatre on Lynn Valley Road. It would be North Vancouver’s third theatre—the Odeon sat at the corner of Lonsdale and 14th Avenue, and the Lonsdale Theatre that went up in 1911, would close forever in 1954.
Steve, who previously managed the Cameo Theatre in Whalley, chose the name Cedar V in deference to the several large cedar trees that were sacrificed for the building site. V was short for “valley.”
The Quonset Hut:
Steve personally supervised the construction of the Quonset hut that would house his 437-seat theatre. If you are like me and have no idea what a Quonset hut is, I’ll save you the trouble of a search. According to Wikipedia, the first huts were manufactured in 1941, made from corrugated steel sheets and could last for 100 years.
Hard to imagine today, but 70 years ago, the total construction time for the building took less than six months. There was an open house for the Cedar V on May 27, 1953, and that year you could catch the Texas Carnival with Red Skelton and Esther Williams or Mr. Belvedere rings the Bell. Steve’s wife Jean took your money, and birthday’s were celebrated on the stage. Seats were staggered, there was no balcony, and Steve (or perhaps Jean) had the foresight to include a “crying room,” a soundproof area where parents could take fussy babies and fidgety toddlers.
Looking at the city directories for 1953, it seems the theatre was surrounded by residences—Mrs Goldsmid was on one side and J.E. Gendron on the other. Lily’s Beauty Shop was at the corner of Lynn Valley Road and Mountain Highway. District Hall was two blocks away, where the Lynn Valley Care Centre is today.
By 1970, theatres were struggling and movies at the now Cedar Theatre changed from Dr. Zhivago with Omar Sharif to the X-rated stream of Fanny Hill movies.
Missing Heritage:
When I moved to North Vancouver in the mid 1990s, any trace of the theatre was long gone and turned into a parking lot for customers of Dairy Queen and Kentucky Fried Chicken (now a liquor store). Across the road (now the library) was a 7-11, a stationery store and a butcher named Gord who had a dozen children and lots of stories.
While the North Vancouver Museum and Archives does a great job of keeping our history alive, so much is invisible to newcomers. I’d love to see more plaques around Lynn Valley that tell the story of these lost buildings and missing heritage.
Related:
- Odeon Theatre on Lonsdale
- Behind the Stone Wall on Lynn Valley Road
- Edgemont Village, then and now
- Varley’s Lynn Valley
- Lynn Valley Hotel
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